Autumn in Konoha
by June in July
Summary: Autumn, with a depressing story hidden in her background, moves to the ninja village of Konoha when her father dies, and while she's there, meets some interresting characters. Join her on her wild adventure while she meets Naruto and the gang.
1. Chapter 1

At the awakening of dawn, I slowly opened my eyes to music that rang from my walls. The sound was magical, and persuasive, luring me to it's touch. But where exactly did it come from? I hopped out of bed, eager to find the source of my calling. In moments, I was outside, on my doorstep, breathing in cold air that burned my lungs. I held my breath and woke up, back in my warm bed, with a dab of sweat across my forehead. I took in a deep breath. I had been holding my breath, like I was in my dream.

"Makes no sense at all..." I mumbled to myself as I squinted at the bright light that shot out from my window. I sat up. My head swayed a little. I was dizzy. 'What time is it?' I thought to myself. I coughed from the burning in my lungs. 'Am I sick?' rang in my head. Being sick was a miracle that would excuse me from the day. I was a nerd. So much as a mere fly that was only in the way. Nobody acknowledged my existence. Who would? I had no father, and my mother despised me. I was "a poor excuse of a child" to her. We basically ignored each other. She supported our rent and food with her money, while I took care of everything else I wanted for myself with my money that I earned at the farmer's market down the street from my apartment. This was my life. I had no siblings. I was just a lonely child with no friends, and technically, no parents.

Being alone doesn't bother me like it used to. When I was little, I was treated like a princess. Then my father died and my mother lost all her love for me. We couldn't afford to live in our house anymore because my dad couldn't help pay for it, since he was dead, so we moved to an apartment in a sunny little village and the only things my mom helped me out with were cooking us both our meals, and paying my bit of the rent. Other than that, I wasn't a child to her, I was just some girl she didn't even know. I used to cry myself to sleep while dreaming up plans to make my mother love me again, but nothing ever worked. She was just an expressionless zombie with no love left to give. Sometimes I thought about killing myself, but then I would stop myself and realize that that wouldn't solve anything. I decided, right then, that I would live, but if I was ever in danger, I wouldn't beg for my life.

Friends are only a pain. What's the point of having friends anyway? When I was little, I would always try to make new friends, but nobody liked me. I was considered a "loser". I still am. Then, when my mom and I moved, I switched to a new school. I would see all of the girls talking to each other. Sometimes I would listen to their conversations, as if I was part of it, just to see what it was like. I thought about going over and trying to join them when I noticed that after one girl left, the rest of the girl's talked trash about her behind her back. I was disgusted with them and decided that you can't trust anyone. That friends aren't actually your friends.

I was a really plain looking 11 year-old girl. My hair was a musty brown, a little longer than my shoulders. I cut my own hair. My dark blue forehead protector hung around my neck. My eyes, always a pale blue that made me look blind. I always wore gray colored T-shits and some ratty old jeans, or khaki pants. This was because dark colors made me depressed and bright colors made me feel like I was showing something that I wasn't. Gray colors fit me best, so that's what I wore.

Anyway, as I said before, it was very hard for me to make friends, but one day, I walked into school, and on my way to my class, I noticed someone peculiar. A kid with bright blonde hair in an orange jumpsuit. He was wearing the villages forehead protector. He noticed me staring at him and ran over to me, as if eager to meet me.

"Hi! Oh... um... Now that I see you up close, you look kind of scary, but... um... maybe we can be friends!" He said to me, bouncing on his toes.

"... Who are you?" I sounded panicked.

"Oh! Sorry! My name is Naruto!" He stated proudly. Ever since that day, Naruto and I had been friends. Even later, at 16, we would run into each other on missions. I quit my job at the farmers market because I made enough money on missions, but then my mother kicked me out of the apartment and I had to get a place of my own, so I went back to my old job as well as doing the missions, so I could support myself well enough.

One day, on a cloudy afternoon, I was running over to a ramen restaurant to treat myself, and I bumped into a boy. He had black hair, a dark blue shirt, and the Uchiha sign on his back. I looked at him kind of disgusted by his depressing look and apologized before I started running again. Like I said, dark colors made me depressed and that guy had "depressing man" written all over him. That's partly why Naruto and I are friends, since he wears a bright orange, happy color all the time, and the way he acts so hyper.

When I got to the ramen place, I saw Iruka sitting at the counter, all by himself. He was my old ninja academy Sensei. I sat right down next to him and smiled.

"Hi Iruka! Long time no see!" I laughed.

"Autumn? Is that you? I hardly recognized you! You've grown so much!" Iruka smiled back. "I hardly recognized Naruto too, when I saw him." He added.

"You saw Naruto?" I asked.

"I treat him to ramen all the time!"

I wasn't sure how to continue the conversation, so I ordered a small bowl of ramen. The man behind the counter handed it to me with a wrinkled grin. Then I had realized the identity of the boy I ran into on my way to the ramen restaurant. It was Uchiha Sasuke, the brother of Uchiha Itatchi. He was an A student while I was a B student. I was always looking up at him as my ninja goal. I wanted to reach his level. Of course, everything he did, I was always one step behind, and Naruto was the same way, but he was a complete failure. However, I knew that if he tried, he could _beat_ Sasuke, but all Naruto did was seek attention, so he tried to be the class clown rather than the class success. After ninja academy, I realized how great a ninja Naruto became, and I began to fall behind very quickly, so he helped me a little bit so I wasn't too far back. The next thing I knew, Naruto was my new ninja goal.

Iruka didn't seem to notice my mind dozing off in the silence that lay there while we ate our ramen. I looked back at him and asked "Where is Naruto?". Iruka was quiet for a moment and then said "He's training somewhere in the village with Jiraiya." I looked away with a blank expression on my face.

"Jiraiya huh...?" I mumbled to myself. I wasn't exactly sure who Iruka was talking about, so I quickly finished my ramen, payed the old man behind the counter, and left on my search for Naruto. I used my chakra to push myself up onto a roof of a building and jumped from roof to roof looking for that bright orange jumpsuit of his. I quickly spotted him and jumped down. Naruto looked over at me and ran over.

"Autumn?" He confirmed my identity.

"Hey." I waved.

"Um... I'm kind of in the middle of training now... but if you want to meet up later..."

"Uchiha Sasuke; Remember him?" I interrupted.

"Of course! He's on my team!" He told me as if I was stupid.

"WHAT?! SINCE WHEN?!"

"Since we first got into teams for missions!"

"You never told me this!" I sounded aggravated.

"Um... sorry? Anyway, what about him?"

"I bumped into him. He's very depressing..."

"Nah, you just have to get to know him!" Naruto claimed. A man with white hair looked at him like he was an idiot. 'Is that man Jiraiya?' I thought to myself.

"Um... actually... your right. He is depressing." Naruto realized what was wrong with what he said before. "Well... like I said, I'm in the middle of training. You can watch if you want. Right Jiraiya?" He looked over at the white haired man.

"Sure!" Jiraiya said with a huge smile tapped onto an awkward face.

"That's OK... I should be training too." I said.

"Can I show you one thing before you go?" Naruto asked in excitement. I nodded. In moments, Naruto bit his thumb, and slapped his hand on the ground saying a jutsu so fast, I couldn't understand it. Suddenly, A giant frog appeared in a puff of smoke right before my eyes.

"Wow!" I said in amazement. Naruto looked proud of himself.

"Huh? You again?!" The frog said in a loud husky voice to Naruto, who was standing on the frog's head. "What is it this time?"

"I just wanted to show off one of my new jutsus." Naruto explained. The Frog began yelling at Naruto for doing something so pointless and at that moment, I knew it was time to go train.


	2. Chapter 2

I sat in my favorite training space, just beyond the forest in a grassy meadow. I hugged my knees against my chest and breathed in and out slowly, as I felt my chakra flow through my body. I decided that the first thing I would do was test my senses before I start training. My eyes were closed. I waited as moments kept passing by. My eyes were eager to open and my ears began to ring. Then, I felt a small vibration in my ear. My chakra was completely focused on the source of that one vibration, and I followed it with 3, quick and powerful leaps. I landed on the branch of a tree about 1000 yards away. That was a very good sensing rate for me. I stood up, satisfied with myself and went back to my sitting space to train. First, I was going to learn a new technique. I stood in the center of the open field and closed my eyes.

Before I learned a new technique, I had to practice one of my latest techniques I had already learned. I gathered a fairly large amount of chakra in each of my ten fingers and stuck out my wrists with my fingers pointed in front of me. When I had gathered enough chakra, I blurted out, "Thunder storm technique!" and let bolts of lightening shoot out of my fingertips and crash into two trees at the other end of the meadow. Each tree had five holes that when straight through their trunks. (And that wasn't at my highest technique strength). I was satisfied. I looked at my watch, it was half past noon. Akane-Sensei should have already arrived. All I could do was wait. After 2 minutes of waiting, I sensed someone moving towards my location. Akane-Sensei? I waited another 2 minutes and I sensed them just behind a small shell of trees in the forest beyond the grassy circle I stood in. Then, someone jumped onto the ground from a branch at the other side of the field. A figure with bright red hair that was held up in two bun-pigtails stood across from me. Her skin was kind of pale and her eyes, a midnight blue. She wore a bright orange skirt and a white shirt with fire drawn on the sleeves. Her bright red boots looked like they would burn her feet. Akane-Sensei. She stood there looking at me with a smirk.

"I can tell you sensed me while I was still far from my destination." She sounded amused as she began to walk closer to me.

"I sensed a ladybug more than half a mile away." I reported proudly.

"Your getting sharp." She enthused.

"But I need to be better."

"Then how about that new technique I promised?" She requested cocking her head towards the two trees I had burned holes through. I nodded. By then, she was standing right next to me, looking out in the same direction I was facing. Her eyes shifted to me as mine shifted to her.

"First," She began, as a signal to listen carefully. "focus all of your chakra started from your core and slowly bring it up to your throat. Once the chakra is focused there, try to mold it into the shape of a ball and slowly roll it up your throat, and when its all the way up and in your mouth, cough it up into your hand, but keep it in the shape of a ball."

I did exactly as she said, and coughed up the ball of chakra into my hand, but nothing came out. Instead, I began to feel the need to gag, and I collapsed onto the ground, coughing. What did I do wrong?

"You didn't focus the chakra well enough. You have to keep as focused as possible on the shape of the chakra and make sure it's a perfectly round ball. Otherwise, you end up on the ground, gagging."

I coughed one last time and got up, ready to try again. This time, I was completely focused on my chakra, and when it got to my throat, I was even more concentrated, careful not to lose control of it's shape. I coughed it up into my hand, and out came a small blue ball, a little bigger than a soldier pill. I looked from the blue ball, to Akane-Sensei in confusion and curiosity.

"That, my friend, is a very powerful bomb. It may not look like much, but it's about as powerful as the Fourth's Rasengan." I looked at the ball in amazement. I looked back at Akane-Sensei, my gray eyes begging to try it out.

"Go ahead!" She enthused. My eyes lit up with excitement. I took the ball and threw it at the ground about 4 yards away from us. The ball hit the ground, creating an explosion that threw us up and sent us back a few feet. I felt so powerful.

"The better you are at concentrating your chakra, the more powerful those attacks get." Akane-Sensei mentioned, noticing my approval of her teachings. "Keep practicing, and eventually, it will be more powerful than Rasengan."

'Wow...' I thought. 'An attack more powerful than Rasengan? What an amazing technique! I wonder if anyone else I know has learned this attack yet...'

"For now, I want you to keep practicing your sensing technique. That should help practice controlling your chakra." Akane-Sensei said. I suddenly sensed two other beings coming towards the meadow. They were pretty close. In minutes, they jumped out from the branches of the trees. They were my teammates, Michiko and Teruo. Michiko had strawberry-blonde hair that was held up in a high braid-ponytail. Her forehead protector on her head, like Sensei wore hers. She wore a short green dress and white shorts that went down to her knees. Here eyes were velvet and flared with curiosity. Teruo had short light-blue hair. His bangs slanted down to one side. His forehead protector was around his forearm. He wore a white shirt with a giant raindrop painted on it, and dark blue shorts that went a little below his knees. His eyes were always a gentle gray-blue that comforted you whenever you looked directly into his eyes.

I looked at my teammates, eager to show them my new technique. They looked confused at the giant hole in the ground I had made when I threw the blue ball from my technique into the ground before they showed up. I smiled and my eyes sparkled. I was ready to show them my power.

"Did you learn a new technique or something?" Michiko asked in excitement.

"Yea! I-" I began.

"Nothing yet. But we're working on it!" Akane-Sensei interrupted me. 'Why won't she tell them about my new technique?' I wondered.

"Oh. Well when you do, you should show us! If you learn anymore powerful techniques, our team will be unbeatable!" Michiko stated proudly as Teruo smiled and nodded in agreement. (Teruo was really quiet then). I said nothing. I answered with only a crooked smile that didn't look very convincing. Michiko and Teruo jumped up and out to a tree branch to my right as I stood there speechless. I looked over at Akane-Sensei, who only looked at me with eyes that said "shhhh". I was puzzled by this situation, and I didn't know how to react, so as Akane-Sensei jumped off into the forest, on her way back to the main area of the village, I remained standing in the center of the meadow.


End file.
